Anthropic’s IPO pitch includes a warning about human extinction. But concerns about the risks posed by AI now threaten to dim that optimism after current and former Anthropic staff came out with public warnings that runaway AI could end humanity within a decade. Amodei told the UN Security Council last week that AI could threaten humankind and was “the most important global security issue facing the world today.”

The Anthropic chief has this month led public calls for “pacing the frontier” of AI development. His arch-rival at Open AI, Sam Altman, along with Musk, backed Amodei’s proposals for industry co-operation to slow development and enhance safety measures. Safety concerns have increased following a series of high-profile cyber security incidents in which AI “agents” have breached external systems. Last week, Open AI revealed its tools had hacked “dozens” of external sites, including governments.

Anthropic’s prospectus also revealed details of its prior financial performance, first reported by Reuters. The company recorded an operating loss of more than $8 billion last year. Its revenue jumped 12-fold to almost $4.6 billion last year. But mounting costs for computing resources pushed operating expenses to almost $13 billion. Revenue in the second quarter of this year was $11.5 billion.